Share Your Story; Not A Fit Chick

19th April 2018

Welcome back to another week of the “Share Your Story” series. Last week we had ‘A’ from Life Like a Galaxy Girl sharing her story of being sexually assaulted. A was assaulted when she was younger and now she has a Twitter group to help other people who have gone through the same. This week I would like to hand the reins over to Lanay Renae who blogs over at Not A Fit Chick……

Not A Fit Chick

Lanay Renae is 27 years old.
Originally from Oklahoma City, OK. Lanay now lives in Atlanta, GA. She is a Physical Education Teacher, Fitness Instructor and Blogger. Currently, Lanay is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Physical Education & Health at Valdosta State University. She embodies her passion for helping others stay physically active through her career, education and blog. Lanay is a believer in self love and staying true to yourself.

My Story

Thinking Outside the Box

I always thought that I was supposed to do what society expected me to do. I thought I was supposed to go to college, get married and have kids. That’s what society wanted to do, right?? My parents, on the other hand, wanted me to graduate from high school. After that, they didn’t really care what I did as long as they weren’t paying for it.

My name is Lanay, I am 27 and I am very single. I didn’t think that this would be my life. I thought at this point, I would be ready to get married, have kids and be like everyone else. But then I started asking myself a lot of questions.

Is that what I really want?? Why did I want to do that?? Am I really ready for all that??

The most important question is why?? And the scariest question is what if I don’t want to have that??

You see, society wants everyone to be the same. Whenever you hear them, its society talking. They want you to either be like everyone else or be shamed that you are not. We are brainwashed to believe that when we grow up we should go to school, get a job, get married and have kids. That’s the dream right??

But what about those people like myself who do not see that as the dream?? What if I don’t want to be married?? What if I don’t want to have kids??

It wasn’t until recently that I started to say “Screw society!!” I do things that make me happy. I do things that I want to do. I have a mindset that isn’t about pleasing others, but pleasing myself. My aunt calls it “thinking outside of the box”.

I started to have this resolution when I realised that I was comparing myself to others. Things that I didn’t have made me feel like what I did have didn’t matter. It made me feel like no matter what I was never going to be good enough. I realised that I was not happy when I was trying to be like everyone else. Once I started doing things that I always wanted to do, I started living my life in my own truth. I become sooooo much happier. I didn’t want to limit myself anymore.

You see, I didn’t know that this was an option. I thought that I had to be like everyone else. Wrong!! We were meant to be different. We were meant to stand out from each other. We were meant to be free to live our lives the way we want to.

Living “within the box” will only put limits on what you can do. It’s being safe. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I am not saying that doing things that others are doing i.e. getting married, having kids, etc. is wrong. I am saying that you should do it because you want to do it. If you truly do not want those things then you don’t have to.

You are not weird. You are not selfish. You are not less than because you don’t have those things.

They will make you think that you are all those things plus more. They are “living within the box”. I encourage you to not worry about others, but yourself. Make yourself happy. Do things when you are ready to not when they say you should.

It’s not easy. It didn’t come over night. I didn’t think this would be my life. Happy. Confident. Loved. Those are all the feelings I have right now because I am living my life for me. They will never dictate what I do. They will never win.

Love yourself. Love your life. Love the things you do.

Thank you Lanay Renae for giving us an insight into your life. I love that you have been confident with your choices and you’re very right. We need to do things that make us happy, after all if we don’t what’s the point?

Now you’ve finished reading Lanay Renae’s post, why not show her some love on her media platforms??